The act of being mindful is simply a way of maintaining a higher level of awareness in daily life action and thoughts. One of our favorite ways to practice being mindful is to hike.

Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often on hiking trails.

Hiking is one of the fundamental outdoor activities on which many others are based. Many beautiful places can only be reached overland by hiking, and enthusiasts regard hiking as the best way to see nature. Hiking over long distances or over difficult terrain requires both the physical ability to do the hike and the knowledge of the route and its pitfalls.

In the Socratic dialogue that Plato produced as Euthydemus, Socrates describes the labyrinthine line of a logical argument:

“Then it seemed like falling into a labyrinth: we thought we were at the finish, but our way bent round and we found ourselves as it were back at the beginning, and just as far from that which we were seeking at first.”

… Thus the present-day notion of a labyrinth as a place where one can lose [his] way must be set aside. It is a confusing path, hard to follow without a thread, but, provided [the traverser] is not devoured at the midpoint, it leads surely, despite twists and turns, back to the beginning.

Peter’s Fairy Godmother, Brigitte Mars (an herbalist, famous author, and raw food chef from Boulder, CO) just gave him the Yoga Garden Game for his birthday! Our whole family loves to play this game at home and when we travel. We use our Zen Timer/Alarm Clock to practice holding each pose for 5 seconds.

Here are Peter’s favorite yoga Poses:

Frog Pose

Snake Pose

Tree Pose

Cat Pose

Cow Pose

Butterfly Pose

Downward Facing Dog Pose

Bridge Pose

Bamboo Pose

Yoga with kids in nature

Bamboo chime clock and yoga timer

Children love to move their bodies! Yoga improves their ability to concentrate and focus. Yoga helps children to be calm too!

Research in cognitive psychology shows that our thoughts determine the quality of our emotions, moods, actions, and life experiences. “So nothing is more urgent or more important than learning how to take charge of our thinking,” says Selby. He created a technique to break “thought addiction,” or an inability to let go of past regrets and future worries in order to enjoy the present moment.

The approach uses “cognitive shifting,” which helps you move between states of mind and optimize your mental performance. In pairing that mental shift with specific phrases you say to yourself, you build a powerful habit that can overcome the tendency to “read” events in a negative way. In short: You stop letting little things upend entire days.

Wake up with gradual, beautiful acoustic chimes. The Zen Alarm Clock transforms your mornings and gets you started right, with a progressive awakening.

Waking up in the morning should be as pleasant as falling asleep at night. The Zen Alarm Clock's gradual, gentle awakening is transformative.

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.

Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong. Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later. The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper. This gentle, ten-minute “progressive awakening” leaves users feeling less groggy, and even helps with dream recall.

Utamaro - Wake up with gradual, beautiful acoustic chimes. The Zen Alarm Clock transforms your mornings and gets you started right, with a progressive awakening

Waking up in the morning is a metaphor for life — a kind of daily microcosmic reenactment of our overall purpose for being in the world. That is, just about every religious tradition emphasizes spiritual growth. And the connection between “awakening” and spiritual growth can be found in practically all forms of spiritual teaching.

So if waking up in the morning really is a metaphor for our larger spiritual lives, this perspective might help us treat our morning ritual of getting out of bed as a kind of spiritual practice. Indeed, when approached in this way, how we wake up in the morning can make a larger difference in our lives overall.

Perhaps this is stretching the matter, but there are many people who do recognize that something as simple as waking up in the morning can be an authentic form of spiritual practice. For those who don’t have to go to work or get the kids to school, waking up naturally, whenever their body feels like it, can be a wonderful version of this practice. Waking up without an alarm, whenever your body has had enough rest, is probably the healthiest option, and the one that will leave us feeling most refreshed and ready to start the day. However, there are few of us that have this luxury, especially during the week.

Fortunately, for those who want to wake up right, without being startled awake by an annoying alarm or some radio DJ, there is The Zen Alarm Clock. This clock was designed to make waking up a kind of spiritual practice. The Zen Clock wakes users with a built-in 10 minute gradual progression of acoustic chimes. And this gradual form of “progressive awakening” has been thoughtfully designed to include esoteric features that are fitting for a form of spiritual practice. For example, not only is the hardwood Zen Alarm Clock beautiful to see and hear, the clock’s chime is tuned to produce the same frequencies as the tuning forks used by musical therapists in their healing work. Moreover, the Zen Clock’s pre-programmed 10 minute chime progression sequence advances according to the “golden ratio,” which reflects both the natural proportions of our own bodies and the patterns of growth used in the overall evolution of the universe.

Even those who care little about such esoteric details nevertheless report that they love waking up with the gentle chimes of a Zen Alarm Clock. And as the makers of the Zen Alarm Clock hope, we may eventually come to see many of the simple details of our lives as forms of authentic spiritual practice.

The Zen Alarm Clock transforms mornings, awakening you gradually with a series of gentle acoustic chimes Once you use a Zen Clock nothing else will do

Write a gratitude list. If your average day feels more like a triathlon, saying a quick thanks can help you stay calm. According to a study in the journal Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, people who were coached to be more appreciative experienced a 23 percent drop in their levels of the stress hormone cortisol after a month. Before you tackle your to-do list, take a moment to jot down one thing you’re grateful for today.

Try Meditating More Often:

Although meditation can be done in almost any context, practitioners usually employ a quiet, tranquil space, a meditation cushion or bench, and some kind of timing device to time the meditation session. Ideally, the more these accoutrements can be integrated the better. Thus, it is conducive to a satisfying meditation practice to have a timer or clock that is tranquil and beautiful.

Using a kitchen timer or beeper watch is less than ideal. And it was with these considerations in mind that we designed our digital Zen Alarm Clock and practice timer. This unique “Zen Clock” features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings the meditation session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal.

Time Your Meditation with a Gentle Bowl/Gong Timer from Now & Zen, Inc.

Unplug in the evening. According to a National Sleep Foundation (NSF) survey, 95 percent of people use an electronic device, such as a computer, just before bedtime. “But that can cause you to toss and turn,” says Russell Rosenberg, Ph.D., NSF chairman and director of the Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine. “The bright light from the screen delays the release of melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone.” To snooze more soundly, switch off technology and try dimming the lights an hour before you aim to sleep.

Snooze More Soundly

Our Digital Zen Clock’s long-resonating Tibetan bell-like chime makes waking up a beautiful experience – its progressive chimes begin your day with grace. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, the acoustic chime bar is struck just once … 3-1/2 minutes later it strikes again … chime strikes become more frequent over 10 minutes … eventually striking every 5 seconds until shut off. As they become more frequent, the gentle chimes will always wake you up – your body really doesn’t need to be awakened harshly, with a Zen Clock you’re awakened more gradually and thus more naturally.

Unlike artificial recorded sounds coming out of a tiny speaker in a plastic box, natural acoustic sounds transform your bedroom or office environment.

The Digital Zen Clock also serves as a countdown and interval timer for yoga, meditation, bodywork, etc.; and it can also be set to chime on the hour as a tool for “mindfulness.”

Digital Zen Clocks feature a “high” and “low” chime strike volume control, which allows you to adjust the sound of the chime to suit your needs. The Digital Zen Clock runs on 2 AA batteries (not included) and can also be plugged in with the included AC jack. The clock includes a lighted digital display (which can be set to be lit full-time when plugged in).

Wake Up Refreshed - Try the Most Gentle Alarm Clock with Acoustic Chime

Although the occasional all-nighter is OK, people who regularly skimp on z’s can’t undo sleep deprivation’s detrimental effects by simply hitting the snooze button on weekends, says a new study in the journal Science of Translation Medicine.

Contrary to popular belief, the energy you feel after a Saturday morning sleep session is only short lived, according to the study. Chronic sleep loss has a cumulative effect on performance. Why? Lack of sleep raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol and affects a person’s ability to respond to stimuli, says Catherine Darley, ND, founder of Seattle’s Institute of Naturopathic Sleep Medicine. Sleep also plays a key role in mood regulation and overall physical and mental functioning.

Waking up in the morning should be as pleasant as falling asleep at night. The Zen Alarm Clock‘s gradual, gentle awakening is transformative.

Wake up with gradual, beautiful acoustic chimes. The Zen Alarm Clock transforms your mornings and gets you started right, with a progressive awakening

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.

Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong. Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later.

The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper. This gentle, ten-minute “progressive awakening” leaves users feeling less groggy, and even helps with dream recall.

The Zen Alarm Clock transforms mornings, awakening you gradually with a series of gentle acoustic chimes Once you use a Zen Clock nothing else will do

How Do We Find Balance in Life - Harunobu Suzuki, A girl Collecting Chrysanthemum Dem by the Stream

The art of life balance requires creativity. If you push too hard you will miss its subtle rewards. Navigating easily through life requires a sense of curiosity and playfulness, like that of a child. This doesn’t excuse you from taking life seriously, simply that you release the illusion that you can control everything. By exerting control over everything, you may end up limiting yourself. The art of life balance requires dedicated time for having fun and observing the world around you. You may be surprised at what you find if you do.

Meditation - A Stillness Practice

Try a Stillness Practice Like Meditating:

Meditation is generally an inwardly oriented, personal practice, which individuals do by themselves. Meditation may involve invoking or cultivating a feeling or internal state, such as compassion, or attending to a specific focal point. The term can refer to the state itself, as well as to practices or techniques employed to cultivate the state. There are dozens of specific styles of meditation practice; the word meditation may carry different meanings in different contexts. Meditation has been practiced since antiquity as a component of numerous religious traditions. A 2007 study by the U.S. government found that nearly 9.4% of U.S. adults (over 20 million) had practiced meditation within the past 12 months, up from 7.6% (more than 15 million people) in 2002.

Although meditation can be done in almost any context, practitioners usually employ a quiet, tranquil space, a meditation cushion or bench, and some kind of timing device to time the meditation session. Ideally, the more these accoutrements can be integrated the better. Thus, it is conducive to a satisfying meditation practice to have a timer or clock that is tranquil and beautiful. Using a kitchen timer or beeper watch is less than ideal. And it was with these considerations in mind that we designed our digital Zen Alarm Clock and practice timer. This unique “Zen Clock” features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings the meditation session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. The Digital Zen Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life.

Got a pounding headache? This sequence of supported poses can send it packing.

When a boa constrictor of stress creeps up your shoulders, circles your neck, and encases your skull, you may be more tempted to reach for the jaws of life than your yoga mat. But don’t underestimate the power of asana to unlock the vise grip of a tension headache; try this sequence of forward bends and reclining poses. The idea, says Northern California yoga teacher Richard Rosen, is to soothe the pulsating brain with internally focused forward bends. At the same time, by supporting the head, you’re giving the back of the neck permission to release. “When you get a tension headache, often the third eye at the place where the skull meets the neck is squeezed shut,” he says. Open that eye wide by letting the nape of your neck drift down toward your shoulders and imagining the base of your skull floating up toward your crown.

Balasana (Child’s Pose) with head on bolster or block

Janu Sirsasana (Head-to-Knee Pose) with head supported

Downward-Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana) with head on block

Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) with head on padded chair, block, or other support

Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose)

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) with block

Viparita Karani (Legs-up-the-Wall Pose)

Savasana (Corpse Pose)

Although meditation & yoga can be done in almost any context, practitioners usually employ a quiet, tranquil space, a meditation cushion or bench, and some kind of timing device to time the meditation session. Ideally, the more these accoutrements can be integrated the better. Thus, it is conducive to a satisfying meditation practice to have a timer or clock that is tranquil and beautiful. Using a kitchen timer or beeper watch is less than ideal. And it was with these considerations in mind that we designed our digital Zen Alarm Clock and practice timer. This unique “Zen Clock” features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings the meditation session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. The Digital Zen Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life.